Fished a half-day morning Fathers’ Day trip on Stillhouse today with Chris Kerbow and his 10 year old son Cooper. I first met Chris at his restaurant, Catfish Parlour, off FM2338 in Georgetown. I’d taken my wife, Miss Rebecca, there for a Saturday “date night” and we had excellent food and excellent service in a nicely done setting, so, when I went to pay, I asked to speak to the manager intending to let him know that my first impression of his operation was that things were really squared away. To my surprise the owner was on site and came to speak with me — that was Chris. We compared notes about being in small business and, long story short, we visited about getting his boy Cooper on the water soon after school was out. Today was the day!

The Kerbow Boys landed 61 today. Downrigging treated us the best with 27 feet being the magic depth.

Start Time: 6:20a

End Time: 12:30p

Air Temp: 74F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~82-83F

Wind: Winds were SSW at 9-13 the entire trip.

Skies: Skies were partly cloudy in the morning with a grey cloud bank in the eastern sky. The sun rose above this within 10 minutes and very sparse clouds remained with mostly sunny, bright conditions the remainder of the trip.





Due to the calmer and brighter weather forecast for today, we began a bit early today — at 6:20am, so we had a few minutes for casting lessons and could still get to the fish before they came up on topwater. The fellows both got the hang of casting both Spooks and Cork Rigs with spinning reels at dockside, so we ventured out.

At 6:41am I spotted the first topwater school of white bass pushing shad. The topwater action waxed and waned but never stopped from then until 8:56am. During this time we fish both Area 057 and Area 466 and managed 19 fish on topwater by the time it all ended. The catch was a 1:2 mix of whites:largemouth.

Once the topwater settled down, we headed to Area 239 where Cooper caught a few sunfish on a bream pole. We then headed back out onto the main lake to put those sunfish to work trying to catch something a bit larger. We drifted from SW to NE from off of Area 222 right up onto Area 007. Live bait fishing can be fun when the fish are really turned on to it, but today wasn’t one of those days. We spent about 20 minutes on a single, long drift and caught a nice largemouth and a nice white bass for our efforts, but decided to give something else a try once the novelty of that technique had worn off for Cooper.

At 10:05 we began downrigging. We chose a N-S oriented elipse from Area 462 to Area 217 after seeing abundant shad and gamefish sandwiched between 26 and 31 feet deep all over this area. In summary, after 2 1/2 hours of downrigging, we had brought our 2-man tally up to 58 fish including a 4.25 and 4.75 pound largemouth, and several white bass over 15 inches.

Just after noon things began winding down pretty quickly — I suggested the boys try to catch one more fish a piece on the downriggers and then we could head back to Area 239 to let Cooper do some more bream fishing as I got the boat neatened up, etc. With that, Chris immediately hooked into a white bass, and caught and released it, then racked up his rod. Now, all eyes were on Cooper. We covered about 60 yards from where dad’s white bass had come over the side and then it happened — Cooper’s rod began jerking. He cleared the line and the fight was on. Moments later what came aboard for these fellows whose survival counts on catfish but a crankbait-busting channel cat of about 11 inches in length!! Kind of an appropriate ending to a great day on the lake with some good people.

We packed up, got Cooper 3 more sunfish (a green, a bluegill, and a longear) and then called it a good day with 61 fish grand total to show for our efforts.

TALLY = 61 FISH, all caught and released

Bob Maindelle, Owner, Holding The Line Guide Service and Kids Fish, Too! Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide, Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Lake Georgetown Fishing Guide, Walter E. Long (Decker) Lake Fishing Guide. Offering Salado Fishing, Killeen Fishing and Ft. Hood Fishing

Fished a half-day morning Fathers’ Day trip on Stillhouse today with 3 generations aboard — Grandpa Bob B., his adult son Wyatt B., and Wyatt’s son, 6 1/2 year old Austin B. Bob is retired Navy and now works for the USPS, Wyatt was just commissioned as a junior officer in the US Army as a Scout, and Austin is a Cub Scout who just made the A/B honor roll for a great end to his 1st Grade year.

WINDY FATHERS’ DAY FISHING 2009 – L. to R. – Wyatt, Austin, and Bob with a variety of year classes of white bass. It was blowing so hard we had to seek calm water just to take the photos!!

Start Time: 6:20a

End Time: 12:30p

Air Temp: 74F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~81.3F

Wind: Winds were SSE at 14+ before sunrise, and increased to over 20mph by trip’s end.

Skies: Skies were partly cloudy in the morning with a grey cloud bank in the eastern sky. The sun rose above this within 30 minutes and sparse clouds remained with mostly sunny conditions the remainder of the trip.





I was to meet the boys at the boatramp at 6:30a in an attempt to get them on the very consistent topwater action we’ve been enjoying thanks to the stable weather conditions. The Army had other plans. Wyatt got one of those calls every lieutenant hates — a 4am call from the local authorities that a soldier was acting less then soldierly. He had to tend to business on Ft. Hood, so we pushed back the pickup time to 7:30. I was concerned that this would make it difficult to keep young Austin entertained as the topwater fishing tends to be a lot more enjoyable for the kids.

I set out pre-dawn to search out any topwater fish available, hoping that if I found them, I could put the boys on them before they headed deep for the rest of the day. I did find abundant and aggressively feeding white bass and largemouth bass in the vicinity of Area 061 right at sunrise. I caught 16 fish in 18 casts and then left them alone so as not to draw a Saturday morning following of potlickers. It was now 7:04 — the next 26 minutes went by ever so slowly as I waited for the boys to show up just hoping the fish would stay up long enough to get them on ’em.

At 7:30, Bob and Austin arrived — Wyatt was still doing the Army thing. I took grandpa and grandson back to see if the fish were still up and was relieved to see them still slashing bait on the surface. Both immediately got hooked up on topwater baits and wound up boating 13 fish in the next 75 minutes until the fish settled down around 8:50. This was a neat experience for Bob as he’d never caught fish on topwater before, nor had he seen fish feed so aggressively. By now, the wind was up to 17-18 and the clouds were nearly gone.

By then, Wyatt called in that he’d made it to dockside, so, we picked him up, and, while there, did a little bream fishing with a pole and float just for Austin. He caught 2 shiners, 2 longear sunfish, and 2 juvenile bluegill. We then headed back out with all 3 aboard and began probing the depths for suspended fish relating to schooled bait.

We found the magic depth today was 26-30 feet. The fish stayed reasonably active for a good long while — about 3 1/2 hours. Our first fish taken on downriggers was our largest of the day, a largemouth just a shade over 3 pounds, and the largest that Wyatt had ever caught. In all, we boated 38 fish on the downriggers including 33 white bass up to 15 inches, 4 largemouth, and 1 drum. There were a number of occasions where we had doubles on, and we really never had a lull in the action until they settled down at the end of the morning feed, around 12:30 or so.

Little Austin was a hoot. He did real well following directions. He learned to cast a spinning rod on today’s trip and caught a number of fish totally unassisted. To my surprise he passed up a number of opportunities to catch fish, preferring instead to “transport” the fish from point to point in the boat using my Boga Grip once I had taken them off of dad or grandpa’s hook. He very dutifully asked each time a fish came over the side if he should put it in the livewell for a picture, or if he should let it go back into the lake. He also serenaded us continually being that he has just learned to whistle. Now, that said, most of the songs he selected included only the two notes he has learned to whistle thus far. For that reason, an occasional deafening gust of wind was not nearly as negatively looked upon as it might normally be on a family fishing trip such as this one! His dad and I just smiled at one another and recounted our own boyhood milestones – learning to whistle, learning to snap your fingers, learning to blow a bubble with gum …

By the time the day was done, 73 fish had come over the side of the boat (including the 16 I picked up prior to my guests’ arrival).

As we approached the courtesy dock at trip’s end Austin got to steer the boat a little and then got to hand-catch the sunfish we’d captured earlier and release them. This was a wonderfully enjoyable trip with some good people.

TALLY = 73 FISH, all caught and released

Bob Maindelle, Owner, Holding The Line Guide Service and Kids Fish, Too! Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide, Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Lake Georgetown Fishing Guide, Walter E. Long (Decker) Lake Fishing Guide. Offering Salado Fishing, Killeen Fishing and Ft. Hood Fishing

Fished a half-day morning trip on Stillhouse today with Ronnie P. and his sons, Adam and Travis. All three run a family real estate and appraisal business in Killeen and are just very, very decent people.

A GOOD FATHERS’ DAY OUTING — L. to R. Adam, Travis, and Ronnie

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 1:30p

Air Temp: 72F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~83.0F

Wind: Winds were SSW at 8-10 as we hit open water this morning and slowly ramped up to about 17 by 9:00a, peaked just shy of 20mph by 11:30, then scaled back to about 18mph for the remainder of the trip, turning SSE around 1:00p.

Skies: Skies were partly cloudy in the morning with a grey cloud bank in the eastern sky which the sun took about an hour or so beyond sunrise to clear; skies cleared for good around 11:15a.



I met the fellows dockside and right off the bat had them do a little practice casting so I could get a feel for their abilities on distance and accuracy and operate the boat accordingly. With a few pointers on technique with topwater baits, we were off to hunt for fish.

Area 061 began to show some activity around 7:00a. There was already a fair chop on the water. With untrained eyes, the boys found it a bit difficult to identify breaking fish on the surface, but, before long they got through the learning curve and were throwing timely, accurate casts to breaking fish without too much assistance from me. We caught fish steadily right up until 9:00a. At first the fish were a mix of whites and blacks, transitioning to all black bass by the time the bite was over. We brought 29 fish to net before things settled down.

After getting the boat squared away and taking a little snack break we rigged up for downrigging. We downrigged in four areas including Area 217, 463, 056, and from 458 to 465. At Area 217 we found an immense amount of bait hugging bottom with gamefish mixed in and over top of the bait. We did moderately well here putting 6 more fish in the boat, but I think there was so much bait that our Pet Spoons were not as attractive as they might otherwise be when food is more scarce.

At Area 463 we found some fish and no bait, and put only a largemouth and a drum in the boat before continuing on. These fish were at 26-31 feet.

At Area 056 we found a mix of white bass and largemouth suspended at 26-28 feet. We boated 5 fish in this area, then gave a try lift-dropping a slab to no avail.

We then headed for our final stop of the trip between Areas 458 and 465. This area is more steeply sloped than the rest of the areas, and produced the best of all of them when it came to downrigging. We boated 12 fish here in about 90 minutes finding mainly white bass with a sprinkling of largemouth, all suspended at 27-30′ with a little bait, most of which was tight to the bottom. We used two sizes of Pet Spoons to work these fish. At one point in time, Adam and I were adjusting the setback distance on the lines and had them just about equal. After a few minutes the portside rigger showed a bite. As Adam took the rod and brought the fish in, we found it had attacked and was hooked on BOTH trolled spoons! I’ve never had that happen before — kinda cool. Now that little incident came on the heels of a slightly embarrassing one … we had ‘riggers down, it was getting late in the day for the morning bite to last much longer, and we’d gone for quite a while without a bite. I kept a sharp eye on sonar and could see fish that should be biting but didn’t. Thinking we’d done all were were going to, I had the guys pop the riggers up intending to call it a day about 1:00pm. Wouldn’t you know it — both ‘riggers had a fish on the just didn’t transmit to the rod tip. So the game was back on for another half hour or so, but Ronnie wouldn’t let me live that one down — until I informed him that to continue revisiting the issue could possibly be ground to place his name on the Texas State Guides’ Black List, thus making it difficult for him to book future trips in the Lone Star state. He was very friendly from that point on. Of course this was all in jest …

By about 1:30p the bite was getting soft, Travis was getting sunburned, and it felt like someone turned on a big hairdryer so we called it a day and headed back to the dock.

TALLY = 54 FISH, all caught and released

Bob Maindelle, Owner, Holding The Line Guide Service and Kids Fish, Too! Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide, Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Lake Georgetown Fishing Guide, Walter E. Long (Decker) Lake Fishing Guide. Offering Salado Fishing, Killeen Fishing and Ft. Hood Fishing

Fished a half-day morning trip on Stillhouse today with father and son guests Bill and Tom C. from the Lake Travis area around Austin. Bill is a WWII fighter pilot vet who spent his post-military years in industry. Tom is a physics and chemistry teacher in the Austin area. Both were good-natured fellows and a wee bit competitive — more on that later.

BILL C. WITH HIS $10 FISH (TAKEN TOPSIDE WITH A SPOOK)

TOM C. WITH ONE OF HIS $20 FISH (A SWEET 15 1/2″ WHITE TAKEN ON A PET SPOON)

Start Time: 6:00a

End Time: 11:45a

Air Temp: 72F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~81.3F

Wind: Winds were light from the S at around 6 at the start of the trip; they then tapered off to near calm around 7:45, then gradually increased to 18+ as the slowly turned SSW.

Skies: Skies were fair at sunrise. Then went partly cloudy from ~8:40a to 10:15a, then cleared and stayed fair for the remainder of the trip.



After meeting Tom and Bill at dockside we slowly headed out and I gave my safety talk and explained the techniques we’d be using as we went. I’ve found that the fish have been doing little on the surface until the sun has been up for a few minutes — this even pertains to the white bass which are normally a bit light sensitive and can get going pre-dawn on some days.

We looked and listened over a lot of water from Area 461 to Area 222 and from Area 007 to Area 444. At about 6:50a, just after the sun had cleared the low cloud bank in the eastern sky, I spotted surface feeding fish in the vicinity of Area 061. There was a mix of black bass and white bass, all feeding on very small ~1 1/4 inch long shad. Tom opted for using his ultra-light rig which he brought with him. I recommended throwing a Zara Puppy with that outfit and set him up on the back deck. Bill joined me in the bow and I started him out with a Cork Rig. The fish stayed aggessively feeding for approximately 45 minutes during which time we put 24 fish in the boat. At this point the sky was gettig brighter and the winds lighter and this brought the topwater nearly to a halt. We had a 30 minute span where we were making cast to “popcorn” fish showing briefly in packs of 3-4 fish and staying on the surface only a few seconds. Gradually, the skies clouded a bit and the wind began to pickup and move throught S to SW. The surface action then picked back up, with largemouth making up nearly 100% of the catch at that point, and most in the vicinity of Area 461. We found a straight-line, hastily retrieved Cork Rig elicited the best response at this point. The winds were now 15-17+ and the fish were really difficult to spot. Had we not been on these fish earlier when sighting them was easier, we probably wouldn’t have been able to spot these fish at this point. We took the tally from 24 up to 39 fish by the time the winds were blowing too hard and the sun was shining too bright for any more surface action to occur.

Around 10:15 we made a break from the topwater and changed over to downrigging. Tom was really interested in this technique. He’s often considered taking a crack at the Lake Travis striper population with downriggers, but has never yet given it a try. I tried to teach him about the particulars of this approach so he could replicate success on his “home waters” after our trip together. We started out downrigging at Area 464 in a N-S elipse. We saw scattered bait and scattered gamefish here, and broke the ice with 3 largemouth all on Pet Spoons. Knowing we could find more bait and more fish elsewhere, we left this area and headed to Area 217. As soon as we cleared the 25′ contour mark, the bait was all over the place and the gamefish were mixed right in. We stayed in this area and on these fish for the remainder of the trip putting 15 more fish in the boat on twin ‘riggers with Pets tied on. The magic depth here today was 24-26’. We landed a 50/50 mix of whites and blacks. Our best two white bass, 15 1/2 and 15 1/4 came out of this area, and 2 of our best 3 largemouth, going 2.75 pounds and 3.125 pounds, came out of this area as well. By 11:45, the morning feeding window was just about completely closed so we called it a good day and headed back to the dock.

Now, there was some interesting wagering going on between father and son that I feel compelled to report on. It seems that after Bill caught the largest fish of the trip (up to that point) he bet (really proclaimed) that the one catching the biggest fish would be owed $10 by the other. Tom then proclaimed that was all fine and good, but that the one catching the most fish would be owed $20 by the other (of course, Tom had clearly landed the most at that point). Finally, by trip’s end, and unable to resolve who owed whom what, it was agreed that the one catching the last fish would be the “winner”. That honor, and rightly so on this trip taken in honor of his birthday, went to Bill. Congratulations, Bill!!

TALLY = 57 FISH, all caught and released

Bob Maindelle, Owner, Holding The Line Guide Service and Kids Fish, Too! Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide, Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Lake Georgetown Fishing Guide, Walter E. Long (Decker) Lake Fishing Guide. Offering Salado Fishing, Killeen Fishing and Ft. Hood Fishing

Fished a half-day morning “Kids Fish, Too!” trip on Stillhouse with David B. (Dad) and his two boys, Jack and Jay, of Temple.

Daddy David and Jack with some hard-fighting black bass

Dad and Jay and the catch of the day.

Start Time: 6:20a

End Time: 10:40a

Air Temp: 72F at trip’s start. 87F by 11 am

Water Surface Temp: ~80.7F

Wind: Winds were from the SSE at around 12 at the start of the trip, but turned S, then SSW by 7:30.

Skies: Skies were grey through approx. 9:15, then cleared a bit to most cloudy.



After meeting David and the boys at the courtesy dock, we went over a few basic safely rules and then went right to work at dockside with bream poles catching a few sunfish as largemouth bait if the conditions called for it. The boys were excited to catch the sunfish, 12 in all, consisting of a mix of green sunfish and bluegills.

After putting 9 sizeable sunfish in the livewell, we headed out to search for fish. Since the sunrise was obscured by fairly heavy grey clouds and since the wind had an easterly component, I started off with the downriggers down in the vicinity of Area 204 to 459. After about 10 minutes we hadn’t come up with anything, so we halted things and did some casting lessons with the closed face reels in hopes that we’d encounter some topwater action at some point. The boys did just fine after a few practice casts, so we racked those rods up and returned to downrigging and again saw gamefish and bait, but did not hookup.

As I kept my eye out for action, I spotted in the distance, at Area 061, some “nervous water” that surface feeding white bass create as they pursue baitfish in a given direction. I glassed this action just to double check it and the game was on. I gave some quick instructions to David and paired him up with Jack on the back deck, and I paired up with younger brother Jay on the front deck so both boys had plenty of room to cast. We started off with blade baits. Jack did well with them, but Jay was struggling to make accurate casts, so I helped get the bait where it needed to be, and he retrieved it and began to catch fish just as well as big brother was. We experimented with Spook Jr.’s for a bit, but these were too big to imitate the small forage size so we quickly gave up on those, but not before Jay caught 2 fish at a time on his Spook! Overall, we caught a 50/50 mix of white bass and largemouth.

We had boated 19 fish by the time the grey skies began to clear just a bit. At this time, the consistency of the topwater faltered a bit and the white bass activity diminished. What largemouth we saw were well-spread making it a difficult task to keep the boys on the fish. We returned to downrigging for a spell and both boys got to catch a fish on that equipment. Then, we had an increase in both wind speed and cloud cover, and this seemed to spur the fish back on.

Given the now choppy water conditions, I felt a Cork Rig was going to be the best bet, and rigged both boys up with that. They both quickly got the hang of it and literally began to land one fish after another after another as the largemouth absolutely went on a tear. By the time the clouds dissipated and the winds slacked off bringing an end to the feeding frenzy around 10:30, the boys had put a total of 61 largemouth and white bass in the boat. About 25-30% of the largemouth were just legal with the rest short; the white bass were all right at 11 to 11 3/4 inches.

Realizing the best was behind us, we took a few photos to remember the trip by, neatened up the boat, and headed back to the ramp where the boys had a final bit of entertainment catching (with bare hands) and releasing all of the sunfish in the livewell we never needed to use for bait thanks to all the surface action.

I complimented the boys on their attentiveness and let them know their success came due to their willingness to follow instructions well.

The grand total, including the 12 sunfish, came to 73 fish caught today.

TALLY = 73 FISH, all caught and released

Bob Maindelle, Owner, Holding The Line Guide Service and Kids Fish, Too! Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide, Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Lake Georgetown Fishing Guide, Walter E. Long (Decker) Lake Fishing Guide. Offering Salado Fishing, Killeen Fishing and Ft. Hood Fishing

Fished a half-day morning trip on Stillhouse today and did some scouting in advance of a “Kids Fish, Too!” trip tomorrow.

This 3.75 pound largemouth was suspended at 25′ over 40′ in open water and was feeding on small shad

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 12:30a

Air Temp: 78F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~80.3F

Wind: Winds were light from the SE at around 10 at the start of the trip and stayed that way until around 10:45; they then began to shift to the S. and increase to ~14mph as the skies began to brighten for the first time this morning

Skies: Skies were overcast and grey the entire trip to 10:45 when they dissipated and cleared.



Due to the diminished light level and E. component to the wind, there was no topwater to be found today.

In advance of tomorrow’s trip, I did a downrigging “milkrun” to determine if active gamefish were to be found amidst the plentiful bait congregations seen on sonar in several areas. In summary, I successfully downrigged for white bass in the following areas:

Area 459, Area 464, Area 191, Area 462, Area 463, and Area 056. I spent just enough time in each one of these areas to catch 2-3 fish and then I moved on. By 10:45, I’d put 29 fish in the boat. I did attempt vertical jigging at Areas 459 and 463. Fish were there but very reluctant — there would have been no way to instruct a kid to catch fish over fish as lethargic as these were — the horizontal approach was definitely the way to go.

Due to an appointment set for 12:45, I headed back toward my launch site intending to take a close look, at least with sonar, at the Area 145 complex. As I arrived, the area was heavy with bait and I began attempting to slab. Not 3 minutes into the effort I heard one, then another, then another surface feeding fish pop a shad on top. I let off the trolling motor to eliminate the bow slab and listen better. I was right on the lead edge of what would be a 40 minute mid-day largemouth bass feed on the surface. I stayed on the fish with the trolling motor and work them over with a Cork Rig. A straight-line, fairly brisk retrieve is what they wanted. I landed a total of 17 largemouth (8 legal) in this short time span. By the time I had to leave, the fish were tapering off, but were still seen scattered on the surface.



TALLY = 46 FISH, all caught and released

Bob Maindelle, Owner, Holding The Line Guide Service and Kids Fish, Too! Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide, Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Lake Georgetown Fishing Guide, Walter E. Long (Decker) Lake Fishing Guide. Offering Salado Fishing, Killeen Fishing and Ft. Hood Fishing

Fished a half-day evening “Kids Fish, Too!” trip on Stillhouse with best friends Joseph H. and Tyanna E. of Killeen.

TYANNA WITH A BIG OL’ CHANNEL CAT

CAN YOU TELL JOSEPH WAS EXCITED ABOUT THIS WHOLE THING?

Start Time: 5:30p

End Time: 9:00p

Air Temp: 90F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~81.3F

Wind: Winds were from the SE at around 12 at the start of the trip, slowly tapering off to around SE at 9 by trip’s end.

Skies: Skies were fair entire trip, with a bank of grey clouds obscuring the sun’s setting for the last 45 minutes of the day.

After mom dropped Joseph and Tyanna off with me, I spoke with each of them about thier fishing experiences, what they thought our trip would be like, and what kind of equipment they were already familiar with. Tyanna had no fishing experience and had never caught a fish before. Joseph absorbs all he can about the sport through books, movies, fishing shows, and magazines, but has had little opportunity to practice what he’s learned.

We began the trip using bream poles and bait. As we did so, the kids learned the importance of being stealthy in their approach to fish, about how fish use cover to ambush from, and about how to match tackle to quarry size. After about 40 minutes we’d covered about 200 yards of shoreline from Area 455 to Area 456, and each landed 3 sunfish. I offered that we could pursue some larger fish and the kids snapped at the chance to do that, so we headed out to some deeper waters and in no time sonar revealed that bait and gamefish were sandwiched at 22-27 feet to the E. of a line from Area 118 to Area 145. We ran downriggers over these fish and steadily caught white bass, largemouth, and even a crappie. Before long both kids were able to raise and lower the ball, set the ball to the correct depth, and correctly rig the release clip. They worked well as a team with one reeling in the downrigger ball as the other landed a fish so the rigs could be quickly set out again to enhance our chances of another hookup. After boating 8 fish here, the fishing quieted down so we moved.

We once again successfully located fish near Area 056, and in a “box” about 150 yds. x 150 yds. to the S. of it. These fish were also suspended in a band, this time from 18-24 feet. The same Pet Spoon and Lunker Licker combination did the trick for our final 5 fish of the evening including 3 white bass and 1 average largemouth, and the big ol’ channel cat that Tyanna is proudly displaying above.

This was a really nice trip. These two kids got along really well, they both wanted to succeed and were willing to listen the the instructions necessary for that to happen. As is typical of Stillhouse, the evening bite was a bit weaker than the morning bite today, but we made the best of it and put a total of 19 fish in the boat tonight.

TALLY = 19 FISH, all caught and released

Bob Maindelle, Owner, Holding The Line Guide Service and Kids Fish, Too! Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide, Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Lake Georgetown Fishing Guide, Walter E. Long (Decker) Lake Fishing Guide. Offering Salado Fishing, Killeen Fishing and Ft. Hood Fishing

Fished a half-day morning “S.K.I.F.F.” trip on Stillhouse with brothers Logan H. and Ethan H., of Harker Heights. This was the second S.K.I.F.F. Program trip that I’ve run. S.K.I.F.F. stands for Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun. The Austin Fly Fishers (AFF) have commissioned me to take the children of soldiers deployed in harm’s way and the children of soldiers killed while on active duty on guided fishing trips. S.K.I.F.F. trips are funded by donations both given by and collected by the members of the Austin Fly Fishers. The boys’ dad, Sergeant First Class Mat Henderson, is currently deployed at Forward Operating Base “Gary Owen” in Iraq, serving with the 163rd Military Intelligence Battalion.

ETHAN AND LOGAN SHOW THEIR EARLY MORNING CATCHES

ETHAN HOISTS HIS DEEPWATER CHANNEL CAT

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time: 10:45a

Air Temp: 72F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~79F

Wind: Winds were stiff from the SSW at around 14 at the start of the trip, slowly creeping up to S at 17 by 10, then leveling off around S 15 after that.

Skies: Skies were fair entire morning.



Because their mom has two younger boys at home, I picked Logan and Ethan up at their doorstep at 5:55a. They’d been up since 5:00a getting ready and were fired up. They asked 1,001 questions on the 20 minute drive to the boat ramp. By 6:15a we were launched and baiting up some bream poles to catch a few sunfish just to break the ice at Area 239. Both boys had been fishing only one time before, and neither had ever caught a fish. Needless to say, they weren’t very familiar with equipment and terminology, so I had to take it slow and teach step-by-step this morning. Before long, we’d tallied 5 sunfish and transitioned over to using a rod and close-faced reel. The boys both picked up on that in 3-4 casts and, despite the heavy wind, we headed out looking for a glimpse of topwater activity.

With the high winds, there was no topwater action to be found, so I showed the boys the basics of downrigging and we capitalized on the suspended, shad-oriented white bass that we saw regularly at 23-28 feet on the E. facing slope between Area 205 and Area 459. We ran a Lunker Licker on one rod and a Pet Spoon on the other and stayed in the fish enjoying moderate action for a full 2 hours, bringing 17 fish over the side including a truly large 16 1/2 inch white bass on the Lunker Licker. This fish will qualify Ethan for the new Stillhouse Catch & Release lake record in the Jr. Angler division.

After continuing to see solid action right at Area 459 on pass after pass, I dropped a buoy hoping, despite the wind, that we could either jig or lift-drop a few fish here just to change up the routine a bit and give the boys a chance to practice their casting. This just didn’t work out well. Logan did get one small drum on a jigged blade bait, but the fish were just too spread out over the bottom to get anything going with 2 novice casters facing the teeth of the wind.

Ethan expressed an interest in catching more sunfish with the bream rod, so, we rigged back up, headed to Area 239 and dabbled with the sunfish for a while, putting 5 more sunfish over the side. The boys got excited about now using our small sunfish as bait to lure larger gamefish, so we tried 2 drifts with downlines and the drift sock out at Area 199 and 457, but scratched at both areas. However, as we approached the end of our drift at Area 457 I began to see consistent suspended white bass showing on sonar. Logan enjoyed the downrigging most of all the techniques we tried and wanted to give it another try before we wrapped up our morning. So, once again we deployed twin ‘riggers with the Pet Spoon and Lunker Licker tied on and worked from Area 457 to Area 458. In the last 15 minutes of our trip we managed two more keeper white bass, and, for a grand finale, a 3.5 pound channel catfish that hit the Lunker Licker as it slowed on the inside of a sharp turn.

We finished up our trip at this point with a short, but wet, ride back to the ramp as we practically surfed our way back in on the now large waves pushed by 17-18 mph winds over open water. A great trip with two great boys!!

TALLY = 31 FISH, all caught and released

Bob Maindelle, Owner, Holding The Line Guide Service and Kids Fish, Too! Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide, Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Lake Georgetown Fishing Guide, Walter E. Long (Decker) Lake Fishing Guide. Offering Salado Fishing, Killeen Fishing and Ft. Hood Fishing

Well, all good things must come to an end. The back-to-back 100 fish days didn’t continue on today as our high pressure broke down and that old SE wind kicked in and brought some cloud cover with it. I fished a half-day morning trip with Andy and Amy M. of Ft. Mitchell, KY, this morning. We had a great time with an abundance of topwater action — it just wasn’t as long or strong as over the past few days.

ANDY AND AMY WITH TWIN BLACK THEY CAUGHT ON SUB-SURFACE RETRIEVES OVER SCHOOLING FISH

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time: 10:45a

Air Temp: 68F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~78.8F

Wind: Winds were from the SE at around 7 at the start of the trip, slowly ramping up to over 18 by trip’s end.

Skies: Skies were fair with some high, thin clouds to the E which the sun did not clear until around 9:15.

Things got off to a slow start this morning as the light level was diminished around sunrise by the thin clouds in the E. sky. By 7:00a some tentative surface feeding by white bass began to develop N. of Area 444 and slowly spread to Area 204. We fished over these fish with bladebaits slowly retrieved subsurface. By 7:30 we’d boated 10 fish and then spotted better action to our SE under a diving heron.

We got quickly over to just NW of Area 042 and found abundant white bass and black bass feeding on the surface. By now the surface had a fair chop on it, so the fish were getting quite “splashy”. Amy and I used Spook Jr.’s and Andy tried his hand with my flyrod using a Polished Chicken in #2 size. We all caught fish here in the 25 minutes or so that the action lasted, taking our tally up to 23 fish.

We headed back to the vicinity of Area 444 and found the action about as we had left it. Amy kept on with the bladebait while Andy and I gave Cork Rigs a try. Again, we all caught fish. At this point the sun finally cleared the thin clouds and the intensity of its heat could be felt on the skin for the first time. At the same time the skies brightened substantially. This caused an immediate spike in the surface activity and provided us with our most consistent portion of the trip. Over the next 35 minutes, we boated an additional 26 fish, consisting of a 40/60 mix of largemouth/white bass.

Around 9:25, the wind very suddenly increased in speed, and this seemed to put the lid on the fishing for the morning. I immediately went to downriggers, but even then only came up with one additional fish in this area where both bait and gamefish were just both active and abundant. Failing at that, we downrigged Area 452 to 453, and looked over Areas 250 and 251 with sonar, and found nothing at either location. We returned to Area 444 — nothing. We made one final check at Area 199 — nothing. Realizing this morning’s window was now shut hard, we called it a day with exactly 50 fish caught and released to fight another day.

TALLY = 50 FISH, all caught and released

Bob Maindelle, Owner, Holding The Line Guide Service and Kids Fish, Too! Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide, Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Lake Georgetown Fishing Guide, Walter E. Long (Decker) Lake Fishing Guide. Offering Salado Fishing, Killeen Fishing and Ft. Hood Fishing

Fished a half-day morning “Kids Fish, Too!” trip on Stillhouse today with a very nice family from Temple. Ken and Julie S. treated their boys, Reid (10) and Ryan (8) to a summer vacation fishing trip. These boys were very respectful, very well-behaved, and eager to do well. Little Ryan even had a bit of a competitive streak and made very sure I counted every fish that came over the side!

FROM L. TO R. — MOM JULIE, LITTLE BROTHER RYAN, BIG BROTHER REID, AND DAD KEN WITH TWO 14+ INCH WHITE BASS

ONE OF MANY FISH CAUGHT TODAY THAT REGURGITATED NUMBERS OF SMALL SHAD. THIS WHITE BASS HAD 6 FISH IN THE BACK OF ITS THROAT.

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time: 10:15a

Air Temp: 62F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~78.3F

Wind: Winds were light from the E at around 4 at the start of the trip, slowly dying to calm by late morning.

Skies: Skies were clear and bright the entire morning following the passage of a cool front on N winds yesterday afternoon and evening. Winds went slack around 9p last night and stayed down through trip’s end.

After meeting the entire family and getting everyone’s names down, I did an “on the dock” casting lesson with both boys to ensure they could cast a closed faced outfit safely and straight. I anticipated ample topwater action today and wanted to ensure the boys could throw to or beyond breaking fish without missing to the left or right. The boys caught on to the concept of overhead casting very quickly and so after a few pointers about safety, we were off to the fishing grounds.

Fishing was basically a cookie cutter of the very productive fishing that I experienced yesterday morning. There were a tremendous number of white bass feeding on and near the surface, and for an extended period of time. Once again, at dawn the fish were a bit selective on size, as only very small shad were found on the surface at that time. As the sky brightened, multiple sizes of shad began to appear and mix together, and then the fish began to hit anything that moved. During this early bite, I put on a silver blade bait for both boys. Later, I left Ryan using a blade bait on the closed faced outfit, and switched Reid over to spinning gear with the blade bait, and then later placed a Spook Jr. on it just to give him some more exposure to different tackle and techniques. The fishing was nothing short of awesome … I commented to Ken on one occasion that the aggressiveness the fish displayed today reminded me more of a saltwater scenario than white bass in freshwater. The boys fished hard, and, by about 9:15a, we’d boated exactly 100 fish. Every single fish was of legal length with seven fish going between 14-15 inches. All were clean and healthy. Many had newly swallowed shad in their gullets.

Around 9:15 most everything had settled down pretty well, although “popcorn” schools of whites could still be seen regularly over open water. To pursue these fish would require a lot of running and turning with the trolling motor and a lot of long casts with many going unanswered. I didn’t think this best for the boys, so, we changed up at this point and went with the downriggers.

We downrigged for about an hour. By the time we finished up, the boys were setting the lines and lowering and raising the balls by themselves. We caught fish regularly with baits (Lunker Lickers and Pet Spoons) trolled at 15 to 22 feet as sonar dictated. We finished up around 10:15 when “nature called” to Ryan, with 121 fish now on the tally board.

Being the die-hard young fisherman he was, Reid continued fishing at the dock as Ryan answered nature’s call. I rigged him up with a pole and line with a light slip cork and a small hook and he pestered the local sunfish population for a while, later joined by Ryan. The two of them added 6 more fish to the count including bluegill sunfish, longear sunfish, and a green sunfish.

Around 10:30 we wrapped things up and headed our separate ways — of course not without Ryan verifying that he’d contributed to exactly 127 fish being landed this day. This was a great trip with a great family.

As I was loading the boat on the trailer, a big ruckus broke out about 80 yards behind the boat as a school of largemouth began tearing into shad. Not being one who can turn down a shot at topwater action of any sort, I scooted the boat right back off the trailer, left the truck sitting on the ramp, cast a Spook Jr. into the fray, and landed 4 keeper black bass in about 8 minutes!! A little icing on the cake for the old guide!

TALLY = 131 FISH, all caught and released

Bob Maindelle, Owner, Holding The Line Guide Service and Kids Fish, Too! Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide, Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Lake Georgetown Fishing Guide, Walter E. Long (Decker) Lake Fishing Guide. Offering Salado Fishing, Killeen Fishing and Ft. Hood Fishing